Programming Behavioral Experiments in Flash

Session 2 of 3 Building Your First Flash Experiment

January 30, 2009 – Jeff Galak (NYU)

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Agenda for the Week

• Session 1: Thursday, January 29th (2-4pm): Intro to Web Programming, PhP, and

Flash

• Session 2: Friday, January 30th (10-12pm): Building Your First Flash Experiment

• Session 3: Friday, January 30th (3-5pm): Advanced Topics if Flash(Sounds, Videos, and Real Time Ratings)

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Agenda for Today

• Working with Pictures

• Reaction Times

• Create a new experiment from “scratch”

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Two Ways To Get Pictures Into Your Program

1. “Hard Code” them• Drag an image file from a folder directly onto

the stage.• Note that Flash adds it to the library.

• File -> Import to Stage/Library

2. Use ActionScript

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Pictures and ActionScript

• Use the “empty movie clip” place holder

• Name it something: “imageLoader1”

• Save an image file in the same folder as the program

• In ActionScript, use the following code:

loadMovie(“img.jpg", "imageLoader1");

Name of image file. Can be variable or string.

Name of place holder. Can be variable or string.

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Reaction Times in Actionscript

• gettimer()• Starttime = gettimer()

– Put this somewhere in the main part of the frame

• Endtime = gettimer()– Put this wherever you exit the frame (e.g. when a

button is clicked)

• storedate(“reactiontime”,endtime-starttime);– Put this just below the endtime=gettimer() line

• Done!

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Creating a New Experiment: Steps

1. Duplicate existing experiment

2. Rename all the files to the new experiment name

3. Update “experiment”.php• Change experimentname• Set the right number of conditions

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Creating a New Experiment: Steps

4. Program your experiment• Update the preamble to reflect the correct

conditions• Do everything else• Test your program in Flash (use Trace when

needed)

5. Compile your experiment: Shift + F12

6. Create debriefing

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Creating a New Experiment: Steps

7. Server Stuff• Connect to your server via FileZilla• Create a directory with the same name as your

experiment• Upload everything• CHMOD the folder and files to 777

8. Test your program online 9. Check that the data file is created and looks

right10. CHMOD the data file to 777

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Homework

1. Install software!!

2. Try and upload the existing files to your webserver and see if everything works– Make sure to check permissions (CHMOD 777 works

well)…ask me for help

3. Take any simple questionnaire you have and try to turn it into a program (at least 2 conditions)– If you can’t get the web version to work just yet, try

and get it to work locally (e.g. with CTRL+ENTER)– If you don’t have a questionnaire, I will give you one

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Next Session

• Session 3: Friday, January 30th (3-5pm):

Advanced Topics if Flash(Sounds, Videos, and Real Time Ratings)